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Hair Products I Use and Love + My Fave Blonde Beauty Bloggers

I think I was a junior in high school when I first went to highlight my hair. It was a big deal. And the second I came out of that salon (i think it was a Fantastic Sam's. haha!) I knew I loved it-the look, feeling/texture it added-and wanted to keep it up.

Unfortunately, I knew oh so little about "keeping up" my hair, and how pricey of a process it can be. Especially if you are blonde. My original hair color is considered pretty "mousy" or "dirty-dishwater" blonde. Not the cutest description, huh? Yeah. 

Does anyone remember the days of ratting and teasing your hair sky-high? bump-its ring a bell (no i have never used one!)? Well I for sure was a pro at teasing my hair to kingdom come, and looking back, I'm sure that I got plenty of stares and was made fun of because of it. I'd like to officially thank my hubby for constantly telling me to not make my hair so "poofy" or "big". Because I finally listened. Too bad it took me so long to listen to my hairstylists about using a better shampoo and conditioner (insert crying emoji here, a lot of them).

I think it was right after Bronx, in 2012, when we had moved away to Oregon, that I started not washing my hair every day. And I let it air dry. It is insane how much of a difference that made. To this day I'll go anywhere from 4-6 days without washing my hair, depending on the day/week, and I rarely blow dry my hair. 

Right after I had Phoenix in November last year, my hairstylist and cutest friend Megan, told me (yet again-haha she'll read this and roll her eyes at me!) to try out a salon line shampoo and conditioner. And because my hair is extremely tangly (yes, even AFTER i brush it completely smooth before my shower) when I get out of the shower, she suggested I get myself a WetBrush and try using some deep conditioner.

Well folks. I can't tell you how life changing these two things have been. Since my little sis is also a hairstylist down in Utah, I had her grab me some products that she knew had good reviews. Here's what she got me:


• Redkin all soft heavy cream. this stuff you guys. this stuff is the bomb. i use it once a week. and will NOT wash my hair with anything else.

• Matrix so silver shampoo. perfect for my hair. it kept it looking so good for so long! i also have used It's a 10, miracle moisture shampoo, but don't love the way it makes my hair feel greasy (maybe this is just me? all my SIL's seem to love it!). Since i ran out and my hair is not even close to being the best blonde(let the record show that i do not color my hair every 3 weeks-eeeek), i just use Tresseme "healthy volume" shampoo. nothing fancy at all. The purple shampoo I want to try next is the Joico brand. I hear only amazing things about it, and how divine it smells!

• Wella Professionals Dry Me Dry Shampoo. This is the best smelling dry shampoo i've smelled! it's expensive though, and so i usually will just grab a Suave or Batiste as backup.

WetBrush. This I bought off Amazon. Sooooo worth it. I will NEVER ever use another brush again. I'm dead serious. And I am like one of those skeptical people (obviously, because I waited all these years. doh!) I use this on my hair and Tinley's hair. No complaints and it gets all our nasty tangles out fast! So so amazing. You need this brush in your life asap!

So there you have it. I want to find an amazing hairspray that holds, but still smells good. I currently use Freeze It, but I don't love how it smells! And not shown or mentioned above: I use Bed Head, TIGI, After Party smoothing cream (pink bottle with a ball-shaped top). Which smells so good and smooths down fly away strands.

I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a pro when it comes to hair and beauty, this is just what I use and what has worked great for me-hopefully it will help someone reading this! And if you aren't following the three ladies below, you must. I don't stop and read a ton of blogs nowadays, but hands-down I will stop and read any tips and tricks on hair. Blonde hair. And these three are the hair queens. 

• Amber Fillerup | Barefoot Blonde@amberfillerup
♡ www.barefootblonde.com/category/hair/

• Abby Smith | Twist Me Pretty@twistmepretty
♡ www.twistmepretty.com/category/hair-styles/hair-care

• Ashton Scurr | Fluent In Blonde@ashtonscurr
♡ fluentinblonde.com/beauty/from-a-stylist-hair-products-that-are-a-waste-of-money-hair-products-worth-the-splurge/

Prettiest Fall Favorites (+ How to Save an Image to your Instagram Collection or Board)

My heart kinda breaks inside a little bit for all you people who are still experiencing temperatures above 70 degrees. Yeah, I totally realize that might sound crazy, but I am a huge lover of fall and I feel bad for anyone who doesn't get to experience one. I'm from little 'ole Idaho, and I am completely content with our weather here, but I have also lived in the PNW, and been back east for family vacations. Now those are some wonderful Septembers and Octobers! 

image via 

Do any of you save images from Instagram to your collections? If you haven't, you really should! It's the same concept as "pinning" an image to a board you create in Pinterest...it's just in Instagram. And it is SO helpful! I save all sorts of things that I find helpful to things inspiring to design ideas.

For those that didn't know about this trick, I'm going to try and show you below what I mean. Here's a shot of how you get to your own "saves" or boards or "collections"...it's that little banner icon on the far right of your top menu...above your Insta images:

And when you click on it, you are brought to this screen (see below). This is where you can see all your boards and look back at what you saved:



As you can see, I have a board for hair, for healthy food (that i'd like to try making), for workouts, for baby....you get it. Pretty handy huh? So now when you are scrolling through your feed, and see something that stands out to you, or that you would like to maybe look back at later, do this:

1. Once you come across an image you like, look below it and find the little banner icon (bottom right corner). 

2. Press your finger AND HOLD down (this is important, because if you don't, the image will get saved, but not to a specific board...and that can be REALLY hard to find later! Just trust me, I'm saving you some time. press + hold always!)

3. Once you hold down that banner icon for a second, a screen at the bottom of your device will pop up (see my screenshot above). This is where you can either (a) save it to an existing board you have already created (above you can see mine: "hair" "fall" "food health" "inspire"...and i can  scroll right to see more of my boards, so that's helpful!) or (b) you can create a brand new board by simply clicking the '+' icon.

Easy peasy!

So I have this board for fall, and I love staring at all these pretty things, and wanted you to stare at them too. hah! No, really. Don't white pumpkins, raw frames, burlap bows, and sans serif letters just make you feel all warm and happy inside?

T O P : letterboard | white pumpkins | farm fresh sign
M I D D L E : fall sign | leaves | bows
B O T T O M : white pumpkins | burlap bow | letterboard
I linked all these cute sources above so be sure to check out their feeds when you get the chance. So much lovely inspiration! Here's all the fall decor I have up. It's extremely simple but I like it:


full post on this new chalkboard i designed HERE
working on the tutorial for how i made this wreath!

letterboard from Retrogramboards
And if you haven't already, go head over here to grab some of these fun new wallpapers for you phone's lock or home screen!

Fall Phone Wallpapers v2

As per the norm, I doodled around during Conference weekend (I am LDS/a "Mormon" and if you want to know more about what that means, or be uplifted and inspired from some really great talks then go HERE!), and anyways, I turned those sketches into some cute wallpapers to decorate your phone's lock screen or home. 



Click on any of the links below to download:

♡ "fall" wreath (w/plain white background-not pictured)

Autumn Themed Kitchen Chalkboard

I am feeling so happy to be back over here writing in Blogger. It's like a breath of fresh air and feels more like "me". Just simple. To those new around here, I switched to a self-hosted Wordpress account in 2015, and while I did understand it, and got the hang of it, and designed in it (for a hot second)...I always just kinda wanted to come back here. So I finally did it this weekend! I'm waiting for my domain to transfer, but I can't wait to share this fun autumn chalkboard with you so...

A few weekends ago my hubby went down to the BYU vs UT game (i'm a little jealous i didn't go too-he was invited to go with a friend tho!), and I don't know about you, but I go a little project "crazy" when Kevin is out of town. haha. Meaning: I got a lot of things done. This time I was able to get some fall projects done that had been sitting on the back-burner. My number one was changing out my kitchen chalkboard design.


I always pin a bunch of things to a board, and gather my ideas up. Then I start sketching. This season is the first that is my own design-and I am happy about that. I didn't feel the need to copy a piece because I thought it was cuter than what I could come up with myself :) So here's my sketch:



If you've been following me on Insta, then you already know I am SO PUMPED and ready for fall this year. And it is here for sure! Summer with babies/toddlers/kids is a blast, but this year I was itching for a change. So I say bring on the brisk weather, big sweaters, cute hats, and leggings 24/7 (because you know i'll be found in those on the daily with this growing pregnant body! hah! and for those that didn't know, yes I am pregnant again! you can read about this journey so far over HERE)! Have a great week you guys!

Here are some of my past chalkboards:
how i made my chalkboard
my christmas chalkboard
my valentine chalkboard